“Jurors fulfill the profound civic duty to listen with open minds to all the evidence presented in court and to decide on life or death for another human being.

A unanimous jury in New Haven imposed the death penalty on a man who invaded a home and raped, tortured and murdered a woman and two children. A unanimous jury in Newton decided on the death penalty for a man who also murdered multiple victims, including a child.

But the jury in the murder trial of Edwardo Wong did not reach a unanimous decision to execute state Trooper Shawn Blanton’s killer. Wong’s sentence is life in prison with no possibility of parole.

It seems arbitrary and unfair that one killer gets the death penalty while another in similar circumstances does not, but it makes no sense to blame the jurors.

Jurors have no motive but to seek justice in accordance with the law. Jurors don’t make or wield the law to curry political favor or to promote their careers; jurors don’t falsify lab reports or hide exculpatory evidence; jurors don’t make mistaken identifications.